RS

FRONT PAGE CONTRIBUTOR

Wisconsin Republicans spoil Democrats’ recall fun.

There is an interesting thing about the Wisconsin recall process. Essentially, if you read the document regulating it you will discover that the designation of a particular date for a recall election assumes that there was no primary; if there is a primary, it occurs on that date, with the general election taking place a month afterward. Also of note… political parties do not have veto power over who can participate in a recall primary. The restrictions are that the candidate be a non-felon voter and resident of Wisconsin who presents a valid petition with at least 400 signatures; said signatures have to be themselves registered voters of the district in which the candidate is running. The kicker? None of these people have to belong to the political party in question.

Republicans have found a spoiler candidate to challenge Rep. Jennifer Shilling in this summer’s recall election, which would force a Democratic primary and extend the campaign by nearly a month.

James Smith, until recently a member of the La Crosse County GOP’s executive committee, says he is running as a protest candidate.

Believe you me, the Wisconsin Republican party is going to be able to find four hundred voters per incumbent state Senate District who will be willing to ruin the Democrats’ day by forcing a primary. The only restriction on these voters would be that they can’t sign anybody else’s nominating petition – which doesn’t matter in GOP-held districts; the incumbent automatically is on the ballot – and since the system was deliberately set up so that the major parties couldn’t interfere with it too much*, court challenges will be… tricky. So, barring further developments, it looks like the recall elections will be delayed until August.

Which is of course the goal. The longer this process goes on, the harder it gets for Democrats to artificially stimulate the necessary outrage and resentment necessary for a successful recall effort. Already the vaunted faux-populist revolt in Madison has shriveled to a fragment of itself; sure, the Democrats can later try to re-inflate that particular balloon, but there’s always been a severe upper limit to how much popular support the Left can demonstrate on the issues. Personally, I’d recommend that the Democrats just dropped the recall subject entirely, but that’s because I’m kind of sadistic and I know what progressives would do to them for doing that (particularly after the Left fell on its face with Kloppenburg’s supreme court non-election).

All in all: live by manipulation of governmental procedures, die by them. The Democrats have no room to complain about their enemies using a procedural maneuver against them… although they will complain, of course. They’re good at that.